Belle II observation prospects for axion-like particle production from $B$ meson annihilation decay

Abstract

We investigate a new production mechanism of axion-like particle (ALP) from $B$ meson annihilation decays and its observation potential at the Belle and Belle II experiments. This mechanism allows for the production of ALP from $B$ meson decays in association with a large variety of mesons. In this article, we first estimate the branching ratios of such processes with a perturbative QCD method. Focussing on the most promising $B \to h a^{\prime}$ ($h=K^\pm, \pi^\pm, D^0$ and $D_s$) channels, we perform sensitivity studies for $a^{\prime}$ decaying invisibly or into diphoton with Belle and Belle II experiments.